Old Stuff

In other words, the classes before Spring Break will be dedicated to preparing you for success on the second (and only other!) Portfolio.

You'll have an opportunity to submit your first portfolio any time between the beginning of our class meeting Wednesday, February 28th and the end of the day Thursday, March 2nd.

Where We've Been

So far, we've done a lot of examination of how writing works and how your role as a writer takes many shapes and forms.

As we've worked toward an understanding of this role, the concepts in section 3 of NWWK should follow as an important part of your ability to describe your writing's purpose and situation.

Your individual identities will shape how the rest of your writing in this class is performed and processed, but your shared goals as Computer Scientists will also guide the research process that will help you develop and demonstrate your academic authority.

Let's take a minute to discuss the things you researched over the weekend and how they can shape the writing you do for the Portfolio.

Where We Are

So, focusing on how your individual interests might help guide the way you use Computer Science after you graduate, your goal for today is to begin to identify and plan for the construction of a piece of writing, a Critical Analysis, that exposes and explains how writing benefits Computer Scientists.

Who is your audience? What do you imagine their needs are, as related to your topic of research?

How might you define your identity as a Computer Scientist? As a student? As a unique individual? (And how can you demonstrate those things through your article writing?)

What do you hope your audience's reaction to your article writing will be? (Surprise? Excitement? Nervousness? Belly laughs?) What does your writing need to do in order to accomplish that?

Freewrite for today by beginning to answer these questions.

As always, you can use this for your Portfolio, by revisiting it to adjust/revise/rewrite it as new ideas come to you!

What To Do About It

Next few classes, we're going to use the library resources to continue to investigate how other Computer Scientists write/publish/communicate.

Continue the writing process for your Analysis writing with the assumption that our library research will add to your ability to explain the role CS might play in your ability to discuss the topic you've already investigated.

P.S. You are not going to be locked into any one topic that your Analysis discusses. This project is simply meant to help you explore the ways CS can address many of the problems/issues/needs that exist in society today. You'll have opportunities to change this writing to suit your project for Portfolio 2!